1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus to record/reproduce information in a disk, such as CD-ROM driver, video disk device, digital audio device, DVD player, etc. More particularly, the present invention relates to a door interlock unit to prevent a door, through which a disk tray accesses the apparatus, from being forcibly opened, and a disk recording/reproducing apparatus with the door interlock unit.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, a disk recording/reproducing apparatus records information in a disk-shaped medium, or reproduces the information from the medium. The disk recording/reproducing apparatus includes a disk tray and a door which opens/closes an opening formed at a front panel to allow the disk tray access to a body of the apparatus. The door is generally divided into an integral door, which is integrally formed with the disk tray, and a detached door detached from the disk tray.
FIGS. 1 and 2 show a conventional disk recording/reproducing apparatus with a detached door.
The disk recording/reproducing apparatus 10 includes a body 11, a disk tray 12, a front panel 13, a door 14, and a torsion spring 15.
The disk tray 12 is connected to the body 11 in such a manner that the disk tray can slidably reciprocate in a first moving direction B or C. The front panel 13 is assembled to a front side of the body 11. The front panel 13 is provided with an opening 31 through which the disk tray 12 reciprocates, supporting parts 32 and 32′ to which the door 14 is assembled, and a rear side 34 to which one arm 51 of the torsion spring 15 is secured.
The door 14 closes the opening 31 so as not to expose an interior of the body 11 when the disk tray 12 is inserted into the body 11 and is positioned to load the disk. The door 14 is provided at both ends thereof with left and right hinge arms 41 and 41′ pivotally coupled to the supporting parts 32 and 32′, respectively.
The right hinge arm 41′ is provided with a restricting part 42 to contact the rear side 34 of the front panel 13, and thus prevent the door from further rotating, when the disk tray 12 is inserted into the body 11 and the door is closed. The torsion spring 15 is provided to the right hinge arm 41′. One end 51 of the torsion spring 15 is coupled to the rear side 34 of the front panel 13, while the other end 52 is coupled to the restricting part 42, such that a resilient force is applied to the door 14 to rotate the door 14 in a door closing direction D.
With the above-described construction, when the disk tray 12 is inserted into the body 11 and is positioned to load the disk, the door 14 is closed by the resilient force of the torsion spring 15 provided between the restricting part 42 and the rear side 34 of the front panel 13. Then, when the disk tray 12 slides in a first moving direction B to eject or receive the disk, a front side 21 of the disk tray 12 makes contact with the door 14, so that the door 14 is pushed and rotated in a door opening direction E. The disk tray 12 comes out of the body 11 through the opening 31, and is positioned at a position for ejecting or receiving the disk. When the disk tray 12 again slides in the first moving direction C to be inserted into the interior of the body 11, the door 14 is rotated in the door closing direction D by the resilient force of the torsion spring 15 to again close the opening 31.
According to the conventional disk recording/reproducing apparatus 10, the door 14 is closed by means of the force of the spring only. After the disk tray 12 is inserted into the body 11, when the door 14 is forcibly opened by a child or other user through carelessness during operation of the disk recording/reproducing apparatus 10, an accident may result from the disk rotating at a high speed.
Recently, there has been a trend of increasing a rotation speed of the disk, as well as a high capacity of information storage.
In other words, the rotation speed of the disk has rapidly increased from 1× speed to 16× speed through 32× and 52× speed. For the 16× speed, the disk rotates at a rotation speed of about 3,600 rpm (revolution per minute), while for the 52× speed, the disk rotates at a rotation speed of about 12,000 rpm.
In such a case, if a child or other user touches the disk rotating at a high speed with her/his finger, her/his finger may be injured by the rotating disk. At this time, if the rotating disk is touched by a rod, or the disk is slightly cracked, the disk may be ruptured due to the rotary force of the disk rotating at the high speed. Fragments of the ruptured disk may be very rapidly scattered in all directions. If the fragments of the ruptured disk escape from the body 11, a human body may be injured by the scattered fragments.
In addition, the conventional disk recording/reproducing apparatus 10 can start a play operation automatically, even though the child or other user forcibly pushes the disk tray 12 into the body 11 and then causes the opened door 14 to remain open. At that time, the child or other user may be injured by the disk rotating at high speed.